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Pollen morphology in Brazilian species of Gloxiniinae (Gesneriaceae): variation in apertures and pattern of ornamentation

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Abstract

Gloxiniinae comprises herbs and subshrubs usually growing on rocky outcrops, rocky fields or gallery forests. For Gesneriaceae in some cases variations in pollen morphology allow the differentiation of genera and species. We studied the pollen grains of ten Brazilian species of Gloxiniinae (Gesneriaceae), including the genera Chautemsia, Gloxinia, Goyazia, Mandirola and Seemannia with the purposes of describing the pollen morphology of these genera, and contributing to the taxonomic characterization of the group and a better delimitation of genera and species of Gesneriaceae. The pollen grains were acetolyzed, measured, photographed and described qualitatively. Quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive and multivariate statistics. Non-acetolyzed pollen grains were observed in SEM and TEM in order to provide more details of the ornamentation and the structure of the exine. The analyzed species differ as to the pollen amb, shape, length, width and ends of colpi, presence or absence of margo, type of endoaperture and exine ornamentation. We found circular, subcircular and subtriangular amb, oblate spheroidal and subprolate shape, long or very long colpi, narrow, wide or very wide, with or without margo, lalongate or lolongate endoaperture in microreticulate or reticulate pollen grains. The reticulate ornamentation appears in the Gloxinia species’ pollen grains, and lolongate endoapertures represent the pattern for the subtribe pollen grains except in Chautemsia. The pollen grain metrics examined by principal component analysis allow generic distinction. We conclude that qualitative and quantitative pollen data help to delimit the genera and species of Gloxiniinae.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the curators of Herbaria ESA, G, HUFABC, SP and UEC for kindly allowing pollen sampling from herbarium sheets and Mauro Peixoto for providing some samples of the pollen materials for the present study. C. N. Souza is funded by a FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) scholarship (2015/02707-0). A.O. Araujo is funded by a FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) research Grant (2011/20269-9).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biologia Aplicada à Agropecuária, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV), UNESP—Univ. Estadual Paulista, Via de Acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal, SP, 14884-900, Brazil

    Cintia N. de Souza & Eduardo C. Gasparino

  2. Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, UFABC – Univ. Federal do ABC, Rua São Paulo, s/nº - Jardim Antares, São Bernardo do Campo, SP, 09606-070, Brazil

    Andréa O. de Araujo

  3. Laboratoire de Systématique Végétale et Biodiversité, Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève & Université de Genève, CP 71, 1292, Chambésy, Geneva, Switzerland

    Alain Chautems

  4. Instituto de Botânica, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Palinologia, Av. Miguel Stéfano, 3687 Água Funda, São Paulo, SP, 04045-972, Brazil

    Maria A. V. da Cruz-Barros

Authors
  1. Cintia N. de Souza
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  2. Andréa O. de Araujo
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  3. Alain Chautems
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  4. Maria A. V. da Cruz-Barros
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  5. Eduardo C. Gasparino
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Correspondence to Cintia N. de Souza.

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de Souza, C.N., de Araujo, A.O., Chautems, A. et al. Pollen morphology in Brazilian species of Gloxiniinae (Gesneriaceae): variation in apertures and pattern of ornamentation. Plant Syst Evol 304, 981–993 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-018-1526-z

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